Back on Earth
by Thermopyle
Summary: Ranma is transported somewhere else from Jusenkyou. The story starts with his return to Earth. Crossover with the Deathstalker series, among others.
1. Prologue

Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Contact belongs to Carl Sagan. The   
Adventures of Pip and Flinx belong to Alan Dean Foster. The   
Deathstalker series belongs to Simon R. Green. Mahou Senshi Riui (Louie   
the Rune Soldier) licensed by ADV.   
  
Back on Earth: Prologue   
By Thermopyle   
  
Visit my page at thermopyle.anifics.com/index.html or email me at   
thermopyle@tds.net.   
  
*****   
  
For the first time in centuries, the Madness Maze was given people to   
work with. Alien energies scarcely understood by those who built it   
focused on their task, examining the humans who had entered it and   
bringing about their change...their evolution.   
  
There were no sudden differences in physical attributes or looks, there   
wasn't a huge boost of intellect to those adjusted, but the change was   
there nonetheless. Each person's potential to grow was greatly   
increased upon, to a point where no real limit existed except the need   
for challenges to be surpassed, to make the subject rise to each   
occasion, becoming stronger as it was met and previous levels of ability   
exceeded.   
  
Those who received this treatment, while still human, wouldn't be   
restricted to such fragile limitations for long.   
  
  
Elsewhere, an earlier creation was going about its own, similar work.   
It was a simpler version of the Madness Maze, intended more for   
replication of advanced specimens rather than making improvements upon   
existing life forms.   
  
Jusenkyou was thousands of years old, and since the time when it had   
been built it had made patterns for over a hundred different life forms,   
many of which had seen frequent use over the centuries. The most   
prominent of these springs was that of the drowned girl.   
  
Which was currently being used.   
  
As somebody fell into it, the mechanics of the 'cursed' springs came to   
life. A stored template was manufactured alongside the most recent   
victim, and where before there had been one body in the water, now there   
were two. One was of a black-haired boy with a pigtail, the other was a   
red-haired girl with a longer, more feminine looking braid.   
  
The process of bonding the two forms to each other and linking them with   
a water-based trigger, which only took the merest fractions of a second,   
began.   
  
  
Two forms materialized suddenly within the Madness Maze, and it reacted   
instantly, bringing its energies to bear upon the two new specimens   
despite the fact that they had been there before. This time, however,   
they were much greater, both mentally and physically, than they had been   
during the previous visit. The other visitors, combined with these   
stronger two, was too much for it to handle all at once. More power was   
required in order to advance the two's potential further than it   
currently was.   
  
And so the Maze reached out to the nearest source of similar power,   
found Jusenkyou, and pulled the energy the cursed springs was using to   
itself.   
  
  
In the process, two seemingly identical pairs of people were switched,   
and a cycle was completed.


	2. Chapter One

Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Contact belongs to Carl Sagan. The   
Adventures of Pip and Flinx belong to Alan Dean Foster. The   
Deathstalker series belongs to Simon R. Green. Mahou Senshi Riui (Louie   
the Rune Soldier) licensed by ADV.   
  
Back on Earth: Chapter One   
By Thermopyle   
  
Visit my page at thermopyle.anifics.com/index.html or email me at   
thermopyle@tds.net.   
  
*****   
  
Ranma suddenly found himself to be underwater. He didn't know how he   
got there-maybe it was that last teleportation-but he did know that   
there was something far more important that needed to be attended to.   
  
Aira couldn't swim.   
  
Her panicked thoughts were blasting at him, her mental strength giving   
each frightened cry the force of an unstoppable train, slamming into him   
with stunning force, just as her arms and legs did as she thrashed about   
in the water beside him. Ignoring his own need for air and the fact   
that he'd breathed in a bit of liquid before he realized that he was   
underwater, he reached out and grabbed Aira by the shoulder, pulling her   
towards him quickly and slipping his other arm around her chest.   
  
*Relax,* he thought.   
  
She calmed immediately. He could still feel the complete terror of   
drowning she had pushing at their link, but it was much reduced and   
there was no sign of it in her actions.   
  
Pausing for a moment despite the burning sensation in his lungs, he   
detected that they were oriented correctly by the movement their   
buoyancy caused, then began kicking his legs, causing them to ascend   
towards the surface. They broke free of their imposed suffocation after   
only a moment, his efforts easily holding their heads above the water as   
they gasped for breath. After they recovered somewhat, he began making   
one-armed strokes to pull them towards the water's edge, which was only   
a few meters away, while holding Aira safe with the other arm.   
  
Pulling themselves out of the water, this time with her help, they both   
collapsed to the ground, still sucking in air heavily as they attempted   
to calm themselves. Hearing Aira begin coughing, he crawled over to her   
and gave her a few good whacks on the back. She glared at him for a   
moment but her breathing steadied out, so he just ignored it and wrapped   
his arms around her. She relaxed, pushing herself back against him as   
they sat quietly.   
  
A moment later he sighed, then spoke. "How close are they?"   
  
She tensed at the reminder, and he felt her reach out with her mind, a   
good deal of effort having to be put into it because of how drained she   
currently was. They were both tired, and he didn't know how much longer   
they could continue to run.   
  
He felt her startlement before she spoke.   
  
"They're gone," she whispered. "I can't feel them at all."   
  
Ranma frowned. "Are you sure?" Did the baby get them? Was it finally   
over?   
  
"Yes," she replied, and he could sense the weary satisfaction the   
thought gave her.   
  
Relieved now that he knew they wouldn't have to flee again, he looked   
around to see where they were.   
  
Surrounding them was a group of small lakes, each one having a bamboo   
pole or two sticking out from the center. Beyond the water were trees   
and dense underbrush, with a rocky cliff rising above in one direction.   
Some distance away, near a small shack, he could see a panda on its hind   
legs, standing like a person would and waving signs at a portly, bald   
man he recognized as being Chinese.   
  
This all looked so very familiar.   
  
Aira must have felt the sudden tenseness in his grip, because she asked,   
"What is it?"   
  
"...Jusenkyou."   
  
"What?" she said sharply, pulling away and beginning to look around   
herself.   
  
"I don't see my father," he said quietly, "but there's the Guide, and   
that weird panda that knocked me into the spring..."   
  
"Is that thing waving signs around?" she asked after a brief pause.   
  
"Looks like it... How do you think we got here?"   
  
"I'm not sure. I didn't have enough time to see where that last   
teleport put us, but somehow we were moved from the other universe to   
here without our knowledge." She hesitated, then said, "The Recreated   
might still be alive, but too far away for us to sense."   
  
Ranma frowned. "I hope not." There was little that scared him, but the   
thought of the Recreated wandering around out there with nobody to   
oppose them was positively unnerving. "How do we get back? We need to   
make sure they're dead, that Arthur fixed everything."   
  
Aira took both of his hands into her own, smaller ones, and he felt her   
intent. He pushed his mind towards hers, and they met in the middle,   
melded together. By now it was a familiar sensation and he ignored the   
sudden doubling of perception and the other, more distracting side   
effects, instead focusing on the goal as they used their combined power   
to look behind them, and into their past.   
  
They saw themselves exiting the lake, watched as they swam to the edge,   
and then went back further, to where they came swimming up from under   
the water, then to when they first arrived, pushing harder to see where   
they had come from.   
  
What they saw next confused them.   
  
They weren't able to see where they had teleported from, it was if the   
teleport had never happened. All they could see was that one moment,   
which they recognized as the time when they had appeared in this   
universe, they had their current clothes on. Before that, Aira was   
naked and Ranma was wearing a martial arts gi. It was as if their   
outfits had changed, but nothing else had.   
  
Looking back further still, they watched as Ranma landed in the water,   
and then Aira appeared as if by magic alongside him. With   
consternation, they shoved a bit more power into the attempt, causing   
them to go back several more minutes. They watched closely, carefully,   
to determine what had happened, and how they had ended up getting here.   
  
After watching the whole sequence of Ranma's being knocked into the   
lake, then Aira's appearance, then their change of clothes and swimming   
up from the depths, they arrived at a conclusion.   
  
Somehow they had been switched with their earlier selves, which   
explained how they had gotten to the Madness Maze so long ago, although   
they hadn't intended to teleport there when they were leading the   
Recreated around just previous to their return.   
  
So how did they get back?   
  
Gathering every bit of power at their disposal, their mind reached out   
in all directions, searching. Searching for Owen, for Hazel, for the   
child, for the Recreated, for Mater Mundi or some of the other, more   
powerful espers. They looked far beyond the edges of the galaxy, felt   
strange, alien minds and artifacts, but nothing that seemed like the   
place they had just left.   
  
Pushing harder, expanding to the very edge of their reach, they tried to   
go further still, to find their friends and enemies. Just when they   
were about to give up, to go back, they touched something.   
  
It latched onto them, the slimy feel of its presence coating their   
combined mental essence like putrid, black oil. Like oil, it seeped   
into them, but with a mind of its own, spreading through them with an   
acidic touch, burning everywhere. Agony filled them, and they tried to   
pull away, to escape, but it held them fast, pulling them in deeper as   
it attempted to suffocate them in its vile corruption.   
  
They fought, barbs of power sticking viciously into it, ripping shreds   
into where it currently touched them. Blasts of white energy shot out,   
impaling the darkness with huge holes, their life force turning against   
it, wiping it out like the sun does shadow. Filled with triumph, they   
advanced, the ease of victory rushing through their veins as they   
decimated the enemy, cutting it apart as they looked for the source of   
the malevolent ichor.   
  
Then, suddenly, it was behind them, and to the sides, surrounding them   
completely. They struck out again, but they were as a small island in   
the midst of a furious hurricane, pummeled from all sides by incredibly   
force, the hateful blackness stretching out to forever in all   
directions. It grabbed at them despite the shining shield of light they   
tried to bring against it, and ripped them apart.   
  
Ranma was suddenly alone, and far, far away from his body. Their   
combined strength was barely sufficient for reaching out to this   
distance... without being together, they had no hope of returning. Then   
he realized he couldn't feel Aira at all, it was as if their link had   
never existed; or as if she was gone, beyond his reach for eternity.   
  
His defenses shattered by surprise, the enemy rushed towards him from   
all angles, his senses turning numb as it washed over him in a bitter   
wave. He struck out with barely-felt arms and legs, trying to attack,   
to recover, but just like water, it flowed effortlessly about him, and   
now it was his turn to drown in a sea of foamy darkness.   
  
As he lashed out blindly, ineffectively, he tried to see beyond the   
living inkiness that he now knew would be his grave. All was black, and   
as he lost the last bit of feeling in his mental projection, he wondered   
if it was because there was nothing else to see, or if his eyes, too,   
had failed him. He wondered if Aira had gotten away safely.   
  
A white light appeared and he winced as his dilated pupils were lanced   
with unexpected brightness. The pain, which he had either gotten used   
to or passed far beyond returned, and was quickly replaced by a soothing   
warmth. His skin, which was burned, blackened, and in some places   
dissolved away, was pushed aside by a fresh new epidermis, the old one   
flaking off, falling away as naturally as shedding. When his eyes   
adjusted he could see a glowing tunnel, and at the other end...   
  
"Aira?" he whispered.   
  
She, too, was surrounded by a soft white glow, and she smiled at him in   
relief, then suddenly they were moving towards each other. Darkness   
still existed, he could see it to the sides and all around them, but   
they were going to be together now, and he didn't care.   
  
They touched, the palms of their hands meeting again as they always did,   
and they merged. This time he didn't ignore the extra sensations,   
instead, he relished in them, immersing himself in the scented life   
force that was his wife.   
  
He felt her love, her happiness and relief at being reunited with him,   
the fading despair that had filled her just moments before, which was so   
easily banished now. Her memories, thoughts, feelings, fears, they all   
rushed through him, and he found himself again stunned by everything   
that was Aira.   
  
As they floated there, filled with a complete sense of contentment and   
peace despite the enraged, physical manifestation of hatred that was all   
around them, throwing itself uselessly against the shield that protected   
them, they heard the light giggling of a young baby.   
  
*Arthur?* they thought.   
  
As if in response, the glow around them began to brighten, until it was   
if they were in the heart of a blazing sun, and the shadows pulled back,   
screaming in fear. The light flared, causing them to blink in surprise,   
and then everything suddenly faded away.   
  
  
Something cold struck his face and he could feel trickles of liquid   
pooling at the back of his neck. What was going on? Why wasn't he   
dead?   
  
"Boy! Wake up!" said an irate voice, one he recognized after a moment   
of contemplation. It'd been a long time since he'd heard that voice,   
actually, and it sounded a bit weaker than he remembered it being.   
  
He opened his eyes, slowly, to see a blue sky. What had happened? He   
felt strangely comforted, as if he'd just undergone some kind of weird   
religious experience, but he was sure that wasn't what had happened.   
That kid sure was packing some serious power, though.   
  
"Ranma!"   
  
Looking over, he saw exactly who he expected to see: his father. The   
old man looked pretty pissed, too. Probably mad about being sent to an   
alternate universe and being replaced by a panda in the meantime. That   
could be pretty upsetting.   
  
"What?" Ranma asked.   
  
"Who is that, boy? And why aren't you cursed?" Genma demanded angrily.   
  
Ranma looked down to see Aira lying on top of him, her scarlet hair   
strewn about just under his chin, her head resting gently on his chest   
and her arms wrapped around his waist. She was snoring lightly, just as   
she always did.   
  
After a moment, he looked back up to his father. "This is Aira. She's   
pretty nice. I'm sure you won't like her." He grinned when he saw the   
older man's face redden as he began to sputter incoherently. "And what   
do you mean, I'm not cursed? What else would you call being stuck with   
a moron like you?"   
  
At that, Genma moved to kick him in the head, so Ranma rolled smoothly   
to the side, one arm around Aira's waist, one supporting her head, and   
one of his legs holding hers steady. After a few meters distance was   
gained, he stopped so that he was above her, then gently eased her down   
to the ground. Once that was done, he leapt towards his father, arms   
extended as he prepared to attack. While doing so, he noticed   
something.   
  
He felt extremely drained, almost more so than he'd ever been before.   
Sure, his abilities were still somewhat above that of a normal human-   
well, normal for him, anyway-but they were much lower than what they   
usually were. The sense of restrained power, the almost constant   
feeling of immortality that he had possessed ever since going through   
the Madness Maze, was barely there.   
  
If he had to fight any of the Recreated, one of those weird aliens, or   
even a Hadenman, he was sure the fight would be short and very one-   
sided. Luckily, this was just his old man, who he'd been able to beat   
into the ground fairly regularly even back before the Maze. Now, with   
his increased abilities, combined with the huge amount of fighting   
experience he'd gained since the last time he had sparred with his   
father...   
  
This fight was just as one-sided as the other kind would have been, only   
in his favor, instead.   
  
Speed, strength, deceptive feints, dirty tricks, and moves he'd never   
used on Genma before soon resulted in one seriously bruised and   
unconscious 'sensei'.   
  
Brushing imaginary dirt off of his hands, he turned towards Aira, who he   
had felt wake up partway through the short fight. He eyed her intently   
for a moment, seeing that the way she was lying on her side, leaning   
over slightly, caused her tight purple top to suggest a certain   
sensuality despite or perhaps because of the dust that clung to certain   
areas of it.   
  
Her amusement apparent as she noticed his reaction both through the link   
and from other signs, she asked, "So that's your father? Somehow I   
expected more."   
  
Oh well. Time for that later.   
  
Ranma grinned, but let himself be sidetracked. "Well, he says he's my   
father, and I don't remember anybody else that he might have stolen me   
from, so I guess so. Don't let him fool you, though. He may be a lazy   
thief, but he's a damn good martial artist. Just not as good as me," he   
concluded.   
  
She smiled at him, and he felt a short burst of happiness, he wasn't   
sure if it was from himself or from her. "Is anybody?" she replied.   
  
"Well, no. But he's still better than most."   
  
She reached out a hand and he grabbed it, pulling her to her feet.   
  
"So," he said, serious again, "what just happened?"   
  
"I think Arthur saved us, that's the only explanation. I...couldn't   
feel you through our link, so I tried reaching for you..." She pulled   
him towards her, grabbing him in a hug, which he returned, before she   
continued. "I thought you were dead," she said quietly. "Then I was   
surrounded by that light, and it pulled me towards you, then the next   
thing that happened was I woke up to see you fighting your father."   
  
"What about that stuff we fought? It wasn't the Recreated, but neither   
was it anything else we've seen either. If Arthur didn't kill it when   
he helped us out..."   
  
"Yeah. It could still be out there," she said.   
  
He squeezed her a little tighter for a moment, then released his grip   
and took one her hands in his. "Lets go talk to the Guide."   
  
The Guide's shed was a short distance away, somehow they had gotten   
moved from in the middle of all those lakes, probably Arthur's doing   
again, and they found him inside when they looked through the open   
doorway.   
  
"Ah, Mr. Customer!" The man said in stilted Japanese. "Why you not   
cursed? You is very lucky!"   
  
"Cursed?" asked Aira.   
  
"Yeah," said Ranma. "Oyaji said something about that, too. What are   
you talking about?"   
  
"Jusenkyou is cursed training ground. Each spring has tragic legend,   
and whoever falls in takes body of whatever drowned there last. Mr.   
Customer's father fell in Spring of Drowned Panda," said the Guide.   
  
Ranma stared at him as Aira burst into laughter. "That panda was my old   
man?"   
  
"Yes. Sir is very lucky. Why you not cursed? And where did Mrs.   
Customer come from?"   
  
"Wait a minute... what spring did I fall into?" he asked.   
  
"Mr. Customer fell into Spring of Drowned Girl. Very tragic legend of   
girl who fall into spring 1500 year ago."   
  
At that, Aira stopped laughing, and her eyes went wide as she turned to   
look at Ranma. "Spring of Drowned Girl?" she echoed.   
  
"Yes," repeated the Guide, now looking at Aira suspiciously, "Spring of   
Drowned Girl."   
  
Aira was silent for a minute, then said, "So, if not for the Maze..."   
  
"I would have ended up cursed to turn into a girl, maybe one that looked   
like you," Ranma finished.   
  
The Guide glanced back and forth between the two of them, obviously   
unsure of what they were speaking about, but they ignored him.   
  
"Well," said Aira, "that explains a few things. Like our bond. You   
were probably being attached to my body somehow when we got transported   
the Maze, and since it didn't finish, I remained in control, instead."   
  
Ranma nodded in response, but said nothing. They had both hoped there   
had been some kind of deeper meaning for it, so this was a bit   
disappointing, but it wasn't really as upsetting as it could have been.   
  
It could also be the reason for why their powers were divided so much,   
unlike the others who were all fairly equal in their abilities.   
  
"So how does the curse work?" he asked the Guide.   
  
"Cold water triggers curse. Hot water reverses it," the man responded,   
visibly relaxing now that they were getting back on familiar ground.   
  
"Is there any cure? Like jumping into the Spring of Drowned Man?" asked   
Aira.   
  
"For older Mr. Customer? No, curses mix. If Mr. Customer jump in   
Spring of Drowned Man, he turn into panda-man."   
  
Both of them made faces at that.   
  
"Well," decided Ranma, "lets go wake up Oyaji and get out of here.   
There's no sense sticking around." Not since the Guide obviously   
doesn't have a clue what happened, anyway.   
  
Aira nodded in response, and they made their way back to where they had   
left Genma. Still holding onto her hand, he toed his father in the ribs   
sharply. "Yo, Pops, wake up." Immediately after that, he remembered   
one particularly hard blow that had hit his father where he was   
currently kicking. He guessed that it would wake the lazy bastard up   
faster, so continued to do so.   
  
Soon enough, Genma was awake and groaning as he clutched at his injured   
chest. "Ungrateful boy!" he moaned.   
  
"We're going back to Japan, Oyaji. Are you coming or not?" Ranma asked.   
  
"Eh?" Injury apparently forgotten, Genma looked up at the two of them,   
and, in particular, at the redheaded girl standing next to his son.   
"Who is she?" he asked again.   
  
"My name is Aira," she said, bowing slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet   
you, Mr. Saotome." She smiled and flashed her dimples at the older man,   
who continued to look at her with mistrust.   
  
When his father began to protest, Ranma cut him off. "She's coming with   
us. Are you?"   
  
Rather than caving in like Ranma expected he would do after receiving   
such a beating, Genma's eyes narrowed, openly glaring at their joined   
hands. "Fine," he said, "but she'll just get in the way."   
  
He felt Aira's annoyance as he replied, "I doubt that."   
  
Why was his father against having Aira along? He hadn't thought about   
it earlier, but the older man had been so enraged when they fought that   
he'd been much sloppier than usual, making it even easier to beat him   
down than it would have been otherwise.   
  
*Once we're on our way, why don't you go ahead and mind-probe him,* he   
thought to Aira, and felt her confirmation in return.   
  
After Genma finally quit grumbling about his injured ribs and managed to   
get himself up, they grabbed his and Ranma's bag and began the trek back   
to Japan.   
  
  
By the time they reached the first village, a tiny, rustic little thing   
with a slightly intimidating, if simple, wooden fence surrounding it,   
Genma's frequent glares at Aira had gotten to the point where they were   
very annoying. What was even more annoying, however, was the reason for   
his father's hostile attitude.   
  
*I can't believe the old bastard engaged me to somebody I don't even   
know!*   
  
*Well, * she replied, amused by the whole situation since she knew it   
was moot anyway, *you do get to choose from three different girls. Most   
men in your position would be delighted.*   
  
*Yeah, right. If their father actually likes Oyaji they're probably all   
as crazy as their old man is. It would have to be genetic.*   
  
*That's true,* she agreed before changing subjects. *Your father isn't   
very perceptive, is he?* she asked, glancing down at the custom-made   
wedding band that adorned one of her fingers.   
  
*Nope. His head is as hard as granite, and twice as dense. I should   
know, I've hit it enough times. He also missed out on the fact that I'm   
wearing an outfit I didn't even have when we got here.*   
  
They both grinned when Genma-panda looked over his shoulder and scowled   
at them yet again, his eyes locked onto their still-joined hands,   
despite his not noticing the rings they both wore.   
  
*It's funny how he keeps getting splashed with water, isn't it?* said   
Aira.   
  
*Not really. His fur is going to get all moldy and smell like crap in a   
few days, if it keeps up.*   
  
By now they were inside the village, with the Guide in the lead and   
Oyaji close behind, and they were starting to think it was abandoned   
since they hadn't seen anybody yet, when they heard a loud cheer start   
up from the middle of the town.   
  
*I wonder what's going on?* Aira thought.   
  
*Dunno. Guess we'll find out soon enough.*   
  
Now that they were getting closer, the sound of many people chattering   
was audible, and when they passed the next wooden shack they could see a   
big crowd gathered around an upraised log, upon which two girls were   
fighting.   
  
*Is that a girl?* he asked, just to be sure. For one of them, it was   
hard to tell.   
  
*I think so...*   
  
He shrugged, then spoke aloud, to keep anybody from noticing that their   
body language indicated people in conversation. That had caused them   
trouble before. "That purple-haired girl isn't bad."   
  
"Yeah. You're better, though," she replied with a grin.   
  
Ranma nodded in response. Aira couldn't fight physically, but she'd   
watched him do it enough that she had at least some ability to judge   
skill.   
  
As expected, the purple-haired girl with the bon-bori soon knocked the   
ugly chick off of the log, causing another round of cheers among the   
spectators. She was popular, apparently.   
  
Now that the fight was over, he tugged at Aira's hand and began to move   
away from the crowd, looking around for his father as he did so. They'd   
only gone a few steps when he heard an outraged shriek from somebody   
behind them. They turned around to see the winner running towards a   
table set a little ways away from arena. The table was loaded down with   
massive amounts of food... except on one end, where a large panda was   
eating everything within reach.   
  
*That idiot!* they both thought at the same time.   
  
By the time they got to the table Genma was rolling around on his back,   
dodging blows from the purple-haired girl seemingly by accident while he   
waved around a sign saying,   
  
Every so often other signs would appear, saying and , as well as other taunts his father liked to   
employ.   
  
Ranma stopped it by snatching one of the signs away from the panda, and   
before it could react, smacking it upside the head.   
  
The girl, her chest heaving either in rage or embarrassment, quickly   
turned on him and started spouting gibberish while making threatening   
gestures at both him and his father.   
  
Ranma looked helplessly over in the Guide's direction, having noticed   
that he was standing nearby but not being of any help whatsoever, and   
the man finally moved closer and translated what she was saying.   
  
"She say that Mr. Customer's panda ate her tournament prize. She   
demands that you give him to her, so that she can cook him and replace   
the food he ate." Then he added, needlessly, "She very angry!"   
  
Ranma opened his mouth, about to challenge her for the prize, when Aira,   
who had come up behind him, covered it with her hand.   
  
"Tell her that the panda is really a man cursed at Jusenkyou," she said.   
*You don't want to fight this girl, trust me.*   
  
He frowned, but acquiesced.   
  
When the Guide translated what she had said, the purple-haired champion   
looked even angrier, and snapped something at a nearby child, a young   
boy, who quickly ran off. Then she just stood over Genma and glared   
down at him.   
  
Ranma glanced over at Aira, who was standing beside him now. *What's   
this about?* he asked.   
  
She grinned. *Just watch, and you'll see.*   
  
Soon enough, the child returned with a cup of water, which he handed to   
the purple-haired girl, who snatched it right out of his grip and   
promptly dumped the contents of onto the panda.   
  
Genma, knocked temporarily unconscious by his son's blow, awoke to the   
sensation of having hot water evaporate almost instantly off of his body   
as a girl with death in her eyes and a red, angry aura stared down at   
him.   
  
After a few derailed attempts to get out of fighting her, with Genma   
either trying to run away or trying to get Ranma to fight instead, the   
girl and his father were soon up on the challenge log. He still didn't   
know why Aira had a huge smile on his face, but his father and the girl   
were at about the same level, so he was hoping his old man would get a   
good beating.   
  
Unfortunately the girl underestimated him, and Genma easily knocked her   
off the log with a single sweep.   
  
The crowd, which had previously been yelling angrily at his father and   
encouraging the girl, went completely silent and dead still.   
  
*Watch,* said Aira.   
  
The girl, who was glowing a much, much brighter red now, looked over at   
the spectators, then, with hate in her eyes, advanced towards Genma, who   
was still up on the log. Tossing her weapons to the side, almost   
hitting a few people in the process, she jumped back up to him.   
  
Ranma watched with interest as the girl, without taking up an kind of   
stance at all, marched right up to his father, blurred past his guard,   
then gave him a quick kiss on the lips. Genma was so startled that he   
froze, and the girl quickly took advantage of it and kicked him in the   
balls, then, when he kneeled over clutching himself in pain, kneed him   
in the face. After that she kicked him right off the log and onto a   
nearby pile of weapons, no doubt causing even worse injury.   
  
Aira reached over and closed his mouth, which was hanging wide open in   
astonishment. That hadn't been what he was expecting.   
  
*There's more,* she said, and he could positively feel the giddiness   
that was possessing her. She didn't seem to like his father at all, not   
that he could blame her.   
  
Before long the girl's red aura died down and flickered away, and she   
jumped off of the log and walked over to where Ranma and Aira were   
standing.   
  
"Is son, yes?" she asked, looking at Ranma.   
  
"Yes," he nodded cautiously, wondering what was going on and promising   
himself that he was going to get Aira for this if he didn't find out   
what was happening very soon.   
  
He could feel that Aira was just barely holding on, and that she was   
very much having to restrain herself from bursting into laughter.   
  
"Shampoo your new mother. Be good," she said, frowning at him with what   
he could only conclude was supposed to be motherly sternness.   
Apparently she thought the message was received, so she turned and went   
over to his father, grabbed one of his feet, then dragged him off in the   
direction of one of the larger houses in the village.   
  
Ranma stared after her until she went into the building, then after a   
minute of looking blankly at the door she had closed behind her, he   
turned to Aira and asked, "What just happened?"   
  
At that point, she couldn't hold it in anymore and started laughing   
quite loudly, completely unable to stop herself and often coming up   
short on air, as she couldn't seem to hold the stuff in for some reason.   
  
  
A few hours later Ranma was finally coming to grips with what had just   
happened, finding himself not at all amused by the way Aira kept   
breaking out into giggles, and he concluded that while the situation was   
definitely weird, his father deserved exactly what he'd gotten. Served   
the old bastard right, for engaging him without even asking first.   
  
Genma was still out cold and had curled up into a ball even in his   
sleep, obviously still feeling the pain his new wife had inflicted upon   
him.   
  
*So what do you want to do now?* Aira asked. *Should we still go to   
Japan?*   
  
*Yeah... We need to get married in this world, to get all those damn   
engagements out of the way. I'd like to meet my mother,* he glanced   
over at Shampoo and corrected himself, *my real mother again, too.*   
  
*What about the seppuku pledge?*   
  
He shrugged, then noticed that Shampoo was giving them odd looks, and   
decided to speak out loud. "I'm not too worried about it," he said   
quietly. "If necessary I'll declare myself ronin. We'll figure   
something out."   
  
She nodded, not the least bit bothered by the prospect. It wasn't an   
issue where she had come from, so it didn't mean anything to her. He   
knew it could cause them some problems, though.   
  
"What then?"   
  
"Well, we need to recover our strength, try to figure out what that   
thing we ran into was. Also, since Arthur was able to help us out,   
there should be a way for us to get back to him and the others." He   
hesitated. "And if we can do that, we might be able to get to your   
universe, too..."   
  
He noticed that she had stopped breathing, so reached out tentatively to   
catch her hand. When he did so, she threw herself at him in a fierce   
hug.   
  
"I'd like that," she said quietly. "I want to go home, even if it's   
just for a little while."   
  
He returned her embrace, although more gently. "Okay. Then that's what   
we'll do. We'll go to Japan."   
  
  
To Be Continued.


	3. Chapter Two

Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Contact belongs to Carl Sagan. The  
Adventures of Pip and Flinx belong to Alan Dean Foster. The  
Deathstalker series belongs to Simon R. Green. Mahou Senshi Riui (Louie  
the Rune Soldier) licensed by ADV.  
  
Back on Earth: Chapter Two  
By Thermopyle (thermopyle@tds.net)  
http://thermopye.anifics.com  
  
#####  
  
As they stepped off the boat and onto the land that was Ranma's  
birthplace, he couldn't help feeling like an alien. There were people  
everywhere; people he assumed were old friends chattering to each other  
loudly enough to draw attention, although nobody else seemed to find  
them distracting, people hovering about, inspecting different items for  
sale along the shop fronts, people trying to sell their various wares by  
verbally attacking random passerby, telling them all about how much they  
needed to buy whatever it was the merchant had picked out for them and  
what a great deal it was at this particular point in time.  
  
There were people everywhere, and they all looked the same.  
  
In the past few years Ranma had traveled about with Aira and the others  
almost constantly, visiting different worlds both during the revolution  
and afterwards, as they attempted to keep the peace throughout the  
upheaval that followed. That other universe was much more  
scientifically advanced and travel was a very common thing for most of  
the social classes present, with the very bottom dregs of society being  
the only real exception. Even after the revolution many of the working  
people who had either been forced or managed to trick themselves into  
signing long-term labor contracts were unable to travel outside of their  
immediate area, as they simply couldn't afford to go anywhere, finding  
themselves locked for eternity into an entirely legal type of slavery.  
That was just one of the things that caused Random to be bitter about  
his role in Lionstone's downfall; decades of running from the law,  
seeing friends and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers and fellow  
fighters fall as he, the leader, fled, determined to keep the resistance  
alive. And it had amounted to nothing. Even after Lionstone had been  
killed and a new system of government set up, the people he had been  
fighting for hadn't noticed a difference, because for them, nothing  
changed.  
  
Random had good reason to be bitter, to feel betrayed by his ideals.  
  
Despite all that, even with the large numbers of people who were pretty  
much stuck on whatever planet they'd been born, there was a large amount  
of variety in the types of people that could be found. The original  
settlers on each world were usually mixed in appearance, different  
colors and facial features seemingly scattered about at random, with no  
real notice or recognition of it being made by anybody, and the amount  
of travel and intermingling throughout the thousands of worlds present  
in the empire kept this from changing. The intermingling of what Ranma  
thought of as different races was present throughout all levels of  
society, the rich showing this tendency just as much as the poor, and it  
was something he'd gotten used to.  
  
Here, in Japan, almost everybody was Japanese. It threw him off, and  
even though he knew it wasn't the case, he kept finding himself thinking  
that everybody looked the same, which was something that he had thought  
ridiculous when he'd heard a foreigner voice the same observation a  
number of years before. That he would have the same feeling now, even  
when he was born in this country, was somewhat unsettling and caused him  
to feel as if he was an outsider. Did he still belong here?  
  
"Is it good to be home?" Aira asked from beside him. She didn't seem to  
have any trouble adjusting and simply stood beside him, her arm linked  
through his, leaning slightly. She glanced about with mild curiosity  
but wasn't affected much by what she saw.  
  
"It's going to take a while to get used to," he said.  
  
She nodded, not seeming surprised, which he was sure was the case. She  
could tell how he felt. Asking was just a formality.  
  
Ranma adjusted his pack slightly, then sighed. "Okay, let's go."  
  
"Do you remember how to get to your mother's?"  
  
"No, but you said she lives in Juuban, right? We'll just take a train  
there, then try to find a map or something." He glanced over at her,  
then added, "Or you could do a little mind-skimming and find out where  
it is that way. It doesn't matter."  
  
She frowned, and he felt her reach out briefly. "The train is this  
way," she said, and they began to walk. "So what did you think of  
Shampoo? She seemed nice enough, even if she was in a bad mood for some  
reason." She smirked at that, and he couldn't help smiling in return.  
  
"Mom?" he said sarcastically. "I dunno. She's kinda scary, with the  
whole domination thing that she was taking to the hilt with Oyaji, but  
she should be able to keep him out of trouble. It was nice of her to  
give us money for the boat fare, though, since there wasn't enough in my  
pack."  
  
"It did get us out of her hair, as well. She probably doesn't  
appreciate getting stuck with a bunch of foreigners as relatives without  
any warning and with complete disregard for whether she wants us or  
not."  
  
Ranma smirked. Weird laws like the one that made Shampoo end up married  
to his father gained no sympathy from him. Nor did the actions that had  
lead to said law being invoked. "She can take it out on my father, I  
don't care. As he would say, 'The life of a martial artist is fraught  
with peril'. It will be good training for him." He winced. "I hope he  
doesn't start showing improved endurance, though, I'm not sure if I  
could take that."  
  
Aira laughed. "For some reason I doubt Shampoo likes the idea, either.  
I wonder if any of the engagements Genma made would apply to her  
children, assuming they have any."  
  
"Dunno. I'm more worried about my mom's reaction."  
  
"I got the impression from your father that she's got weird ideas about  
that kind of thing, but we'll see. There's the station, by the way."  
  
He dug some money out of his pocket and bought two tickets, then they  
sat down and waited for the train to arrive. It wasn't long in coming,  
and they were soon again on their way to Juuban.  
  
When they got there Aira took the lead, casting about through the minds  
of people nearby as she searched for his house. He followed silently,  
looking about as he tried to see if anything seemed familiar. One  
building did.  
  
"Weren't we just over here?"  
  
"Some idiot sent me in the wrong direction," she said, and he could feel  
her annoyance.  
  
"...oh. Okay."  
  
About a half hour later he began to get a sense of déjà vu, but other  
than that nothing really stuck out as being something he'd seen before,  
even though they were on the right street. Soon enough Aira came to a  
stop.  
  
"That's it?" He looked at the house they were in front of and frowned.  
"It doesn't look familiar."  
  
"Well, it's the right address. There's two people inside, so let's go  
see," she said.  
  
Ranma glanced over at her in surprise, while wondering whom the second  
person could be. "You didn't check?"  
  
"Well...do you want me to? I can."  
  
"No, that's okay." Ranma hesitated, then grabbed Aira's hand and they  
walked up to the front entrance. He knocked, then waited a moment, and  
knocked again. "She sure is slow."  
  
Aira squeezed his hand briefly, then said, "I don't think you waited  
long enough. She's on the way now."  
  
"Right."  
  
A minute later, the door opened, and a middle aged woman appeared. She  
was a bit shorter than he was, fairly thin, and had black hair done up  
in a bun. "Yes?" she asked, looking at the two of them.  
  
Ranma opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out.  
  
Soon the woman began to look annoyed. "Yes, what is it? If you don't  
mind, I'm in the middle of something and-"  
  
"Mrs. Saotome?" Aira said respectfully.  
  
She frowned. "No, she lives three houses that way," she told them,  
pointing further down the street. "Who are you people?"  
  
He found his voice again, although his face felt very hot suddenly.  
"Er, I'm her son, sorry. I haven't been home for a while and I kinda  
remembered the wrong address," he lied. I'm gonna kill him. That panda  
is so dead.  
  
"Oh, you're RANMA!" said the woman, much more pleasantly now. "I'm not  
surprised that you got the wrong house, with as long as you've been  
gone. Where's Genma? Did he go and die of the pox somewhere? And who  
is this?" she asked, taking a closer look at Aira now, who looked a bit  
nervous under the scrutiny, and at the rings they both wore. "Oh, are  
you married already, and to this pretty thing? Don't worry, you'll be  
fine."  
  
She paused for a moment, apparently out of breath, then started again.  
"Well, I don't want to hold you up, so you go home now. Like I said,  
it's three houses up the street on this side, you can't miss it, the  
name is on the mailbox. Tell your mom I said hi, and to let me know if  
she'll miss the bridge game tomorrow." With that, and a big, happy  
smile, she shut the door in their faces.  
  
Ranma stared at the door for a bit longer, wondering if he should knock  
again and ask the woman's name, but decided not to. "Okay," he said,  
"three houses that way. Alright."  
  
He turned and dragged Aira away and towards what should be his home,  
doing a good job, he thought, of ignoring his wife's amusement, which he  
didn't think was fair. How would she like it if her father forgot where  
HE lived? Not much, he was sure.  
  
Sure enough, three houses later was a mailbox saying 'Saotome'. The  
house looked familiar, too, and he could see that there were lights on  
inside, so they went straight up to the door and rang the bell.  
  
Another thin woman opened the door, but this one was a bit younger,  
being in her mid-thirties with brown hair, again done up in a bun. She  
was holding some kind of long yet narrow object to her chest, which  
struck him as odd, but he couldn't tell what it was. Her eyes widened  
when she saw Ranma and she opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to  
it.  
  
"Mom?"  
  
"Ranma!" she replied, and he suddenly found himself wrapped in a  
surprisingly strong hug from the woman, which he returned. After a  
moment she stepped back, a big smile on her face now. "It's...good to  
see that you're finally home," she said.  
  
"Um, yeah. It's nice to be here." He wasn't really sure what else to  
say, so he stopped there and just looked at his mother a bit nervously,  
trying to replace the fuzzy mental images of his memories with the woman  
standing in front of him. As he was still trying to come to grips with  
the difference in perceptions, she looked him up and down, apparently  
doing the same with him. He wondered what she was thinking, and felt  
Aira's tentative question in response, to which he gave a negative. Her  
mental touch reminded him that he'd forgotten about something, though.  
  
"Mother," he said, and she looked at him curiously, "I'd like you to  
meet Aira. She's my wife," he added, stepping backwards to stand beside  
Aira and reaching out to take one of her hands.  
  
Aira bowed slightly. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Saotome."  
  
Ranma frowned as he saw his mother's eyes water and tears begin to run  
down her face. "Um, Mom? What's wrong?"  
  
Instead, she focused on Aira, an intent look on her face as she studied  
his wife. "Is...is he manly?" she asked, a hopeful note to her voice.  
  
Seeing a hint of a smile on Aira's face, he squeezed her hand slightly.  
*No joking around,* he thought to her. *She's serious.*  
  
*Spoilsport,* she replied, then said aloud, with an absolutely straight  
face, "Ranma is the manliest man I know."  
  
At that, Nodoka closed her eyes and sighed happily, her lips twisting  
into a smile. When she opened them again, a few tears ran down her  
cheeks and, for the first time, she relaxed her grip on whatever it was  
she'd been holding to her chest. Ranma tensed when she began to unravel  
the bindings around it and he saw that it was a sheathed katana, but  
Nodoka took no notice of his stiffened posture and instead turned  
towards Aira, extending the sword towards the redheaded woman with two  
upraised hands.  
  
"Then this is yours," his mother said.  
  
He felt Aira's confusion, so he pushed a bit of confidence to her  
through their link, then released her hand. Her reluctance to accept  
the blade without knowing what it symbolized was apparent, but she still  
reached out and took it from the other woman, whose face was now calm  
and composed. Once Nodoka had released the sword, however, her smile  
returned in full.  
  
"There," she said. "Now that that unpleasant business is out of the  
way, come inside! I want to hear about what I've missed while you were  
gone."  
  
Still unsure of what had just happened, Ranma nodded obediently, and he  
and his wife entered the home he'd left so many years ago.  
  
A few minutes later they were seated in the living room, tea and  
crackers set out before them as snacks for while they talked. Ranma  
quickly gulped down a cup of tea, causing the two women to frown at him  
disapprovingly, but he ignored it. He was a man, and that meant he was  
supposed to be a little rude on occasion. Besides, it tasted really  
good.  
  
"This is good tea, Mrs. Saotome," Aira said politely.  
  
*Behave, or be disciplined,* she thought to him, pushing along a brief  
image of him bound in leather and gagged with some kind of weird muzzle,  
her standing in front of him with red hair unbound and strewn about her  
naked shoulders, a black mask covering her face. A tube of black  
leather extended from just above her nipples to just barely low enough  
on her legs to conceal anything between, and high-heeled boots extended  
up to the middle of her thighs. Some kind of black stick with thick  
streamers coming off of the end of it was held in her hand, which  
flicked towards a certain area of his hobbled, unprotected body...  
  
Ranma started coughing, having somehow managed to inhale almost the  
entire third cup of tea. Tears formed in his eyes as he felt his chest  
spasm, and spittle covered the fist he held balled up in front of his  
mouth as he tried not to get it all over the tea. After a minute when  
he began to wonder if this would ever end, Aira gave him a few good  
whacks on the back, causing his breathing to steady back out almost  
immediately.  
  
"Ranma, are you okay now?" his mother asked.  
  
He inhaled deeply, a few lingering drops of liquid having to be coughed  
out as he did so, then said, "Yeah, Mom, I'm fine. Some of it just went  
down the wrong tube, I guess." He turned to Aira. "Thanks for the  
help. I thought I was gonna die there," he added with complete  
insincerity, glaring at her as she smiled sweetly back at him, and his  
mother nodded approvingly at his seeming politeness.  
  
*That wasn't funny, Aira.*  
  
*Mistress,* she corrected, sending another image.  
  
This time he was ready, though, and was able to ignore it for the most  
part, although there were some rather uncomfortable aftereffects. If he  
ever saw Ruby again, he was going to have some strong words with her  
about some of the ideas she'd been giving his wife. Aira had been  
spending far too much time with the bounty hunter lately, that was for  
sure.  
  
*You're gonna get it later,* he thought to her, wiping his mouth and  
hand with a napkin before pouring himself another cup, which he just  
took a sip from.  
  
*I'll be waiting.*  
  
"So," Nodoka said, putting down her cup of tea, "where is your father?  
Why hasn't he come home?" Her face betrayed a bit of nervousness as she  
asked, and Ranma frowned at the thought of being separated from Aira for  
ten years. It wasn't pleasant. Finding out that she'd gone and gotten  
married to another man certainly wouldn't make him happy, either.  
  
"He's still in China," he answered. "He had a bit of a local problem,  
so we came ahead. I'm sure Oyaji'll be here before too long."  
  
His mother looked relieved at the news, although she seemed to be trying  
to hide it. Her eyes were just a bit shinier than they had been before,  
and her lips, which had been trembling slightly, were steady now. Ten  
years was a long time to wonder.  
  
He looked over at Aira. *I really wish you hadn't just let it happen.  
You could have told me ahead of time.*  
  
She stared back at him, and he could feel her disagreement. *There  
wasn't any choice. One of you had to fight her and I wasn't going to  
give you up. Or allow you to give yourself up.*  
  
*Still, you--*  
  
"So, when can I expect grandchildren?" Nodoka interrupted unknowingly,  
apparently recovered.  
  
They both looked over at her, then back at each other, and blushed  
slightly. Sure, they'd been teased by the others before, at the wedding  
and both previous to and after the event, but coming from his mom made  
it embarrassing somehow. Even though they'd become quite comfortable  
with each other over the past few years.  
  
"Umm... It could happen at any time, Mrs. Saotome," Aira managed to  
stammer out.  
  
Nodoka mouthed the words "any time" in an echo of the redhead's  
statement. Suddenly a great big smile was plastered across her face and  
she stood and walked around the table, surprising Ranma. She bent down  
and gave him a hug, and he had to move his arms to each side quickly to  
keep her from trapping the cup and plate he held between them.  
  
"Ranma! You're so manly!" she cried.  
  
Aira laughed, her cheeks still competing with the color of her hair.  
Ranma couldn't say anything, he just endured it as his mother tried  
enthusiastically to rock him back and forth. He felt the hot tea splash  
slightly onto his fingers and winced.  
  
"It's good to be manly, Mom," he managed to get out. Aira laughed even  
harder.  
  
After a minute the two women calmed down and his mother returned to his  
seat. The color in Aira's face had fled and she just had a slight smile  
on her face now. Ranma still felt a bit warm from the neck up, so he  
knew he was still blushing.  
  
*I like her,* Aira's voice whispered into his mind. Along with it came  
a feeling of joy, and an image of many children running and screaming  
and banging on things all throughout the house as Nodoka basked in the  
simple pleasure of a full house rather than one pressing down upon her  
with the silence of empty years. He also felt Aira's quiet approval of  
the vision.  
  
*Isn't that a bit much?* he asked.  
  
*Is it?* was her reply. A barely perceptible sense of reproach was  
present over their link.  
  
*Err...*  
  
Ranma emptied his teacup quickly, and leaned forward to refill it again.  
His mother held the teapot up and then poured it for him when he was  
ready. When the cup was full she set it back down and he took a few  
more sips of the now-cooling substance. He hadn't realized they'd been  
there for that long already.  
  
"Mrs. Saotome--" Aira began.  
  
"Mother. The woman who is going to bear my baby's children should call  
me Mother," Nodoka said firmly.  
  
Ranma saw that Aira didn't blush this time, but felt his own cheeks heat  
up again.  
  
"Mother," she said, and linked her arm through Ranma's, leaning up  
against him slightly. Nodoka sighed happily. Aira continued. "Is it  
okay if I ask you a question?"  
  
"Why did I let Genma take Ranma away?" Nodoka guessed.  
  
"Yes."  
  
Nodoka smiled, and turned her head towards Ranma. "Tell me what you  
see, when you look at my son," she told Aira.  
  
Ranma frowned slightly and looked at his wife, who was still pressed up  
against his side. She smirked at him, her shorter height forcing her to  
raise her head towards his. "I see Ranma," she said.  
  
*That's awfully vague,* he sent to her.  
  
"And what is it that you see in Ranma?" Nodoka pressed.  
  
"A man."  
  
"A manly man?"  
  
Aira nodded, her gaze still locked on his. "A manly man."  
  
"Well," said Nodoka, "that's why I let Genma take my son away from me  
for ten years. Because I wanted him to be a manly man, like Genma."  
She hesitated slightly. "Well, not exactly like Genma, but I knew my  
husband could do the job. He's very manly too, you know." Nodoka  
nodded her head affirmatively.  
  
Aira looked away from him, towards his mother. "Yes. Genma is very  
manly."  
  
Nodoka preened slightly.  
  
*Your mother has odd taste,* she thought.  
  
*Be nice,* he sent back. *You've said enough things about your father  
to make me think he's weird, too.*  
  
She didn't respond, and he frowned slightly. The top of her head was  
right next to his face, now, so he couldn't see her expression at all.  
  
"So what have you been doing all these years?" Nodoka asked him,  
leaning forward. "Where have you been? Where did you meet my new  
daughter-in-law?"  
  
Ranma turned back towards her. "Oh... well, I met Aira in China, on the  
last training trip we went on. Before that Oyaji dragged me all over  
Japan. I've probably been to fifteen different schools over the years  
as we went from one dojo or training ground to the next. We kept pretty  
busy, always on the move."  
  
His mother looked disappointed. "That's it? Isn't there anything else  
you can tell me?"  
  
"No, not really. The trip wasn't exciting or anything. Just learned  
new techniques, beat up a bunch of people, and tried to keep Oyaji from  
getting me into too much trouble."  
  
Her eyes went wide now, with alarm, and when he glanced over at Aira he  
could see his wife mirroring his mother's expression. Probably not  
good, but Aira said nothing.  
  
"You beat people up?" Nodoka asked, distressed.  
  
Ranma wondered how she could expect anything else from the son of the  
man she married. Didn't she know Genma Saotome at all? That Ghandi guy  
would have picked a fight with his father.  
  
"Yes," he said, "but they were all bad people." *Don't you say a word*  
he warned Aira, who was smiling now.  
  
*Of course not,* was her reply. *They WERE all bad people.*  
  
His mother jumped on it, happy to have something to hear about. "What  
kind of bad people did you beat up?" She hesitated, looking over at  
Aira. "Did you meet her like that, fighting bad guys? Slavers, or  
something? Your father used to beat up pirates and stuff, you know."  
  
Ranma choked, and Aira started laughing again, shaking with mirth. She  
sat up and leaned away from him slightly after banging the top of her  
head on the underside of his jaw.  
  
"No," his wife answered. "We didn't meet like that. I've heard much of  
Genma's adventures, though. He's almost as manly as Ranma is, I must  
say."  
  
Nodoka preened again. "Well, yes... I'm sure Ranma is quite manly,  
though. Genma is just too hard to surpass by much, in something like  
that."  
  
"I agree completely."  
  
*You're overdoing it,* he told her.  
  
*But it's true!*  
  
Ranma glared at her, and she grinned back.  
  
"What is it?" Nodoka asked, confused and looking back and forth between  
the two of them.  
  
"Nothing," he said hastily, turning to his mother. "Never mind.  
Anyway, no, we didn't meet fighting slavers or anything like that. Me  
and Pops were training and I kinda bumped into her. After that we  
traveled together for a while and then got married a couple of months  
ago."  
  
"One month, two weeks, and six days," Aira corrected, frowning at him.  
  
"Right. That long ago."  
  
Again, his mother looked disappointed. Ranma wondered what they were  
supposed to talk about, what mothers and sons were supposed to discuss.  
She probably wouldn't believe him if he told her how he really met Aira,  
and what he had done since then.  
  
So what was he supposed to say? Something about food? They'd eaten on  
the boat and he didn't want her to start cooking up a storm because he  
kept hitting the subject with nothing else to discuss.  
  
"So who is that woman who lives three houses down the street?" Ranma  
asked. "She said she played bridge with you, and that you should call  
her if you're not going to make it tomorrow."  
  
Nodoka brightened. "Takahashi-san? Yes, we play bridge together, as  
well as do other things. Just us and some friends, a few old women who  
like to get together once in a while. So how did you meet her?" his  
mother asked.  
  
"Oh... well, I had a bit of trouble remembering which house was ours,"  
Ranma confessed. "She got us straightened right out, though."  
  
"Ah. I see."  
  
Ranma felt a touch of annoyance with himself for bringing it up. That  
hadn't helped at all. Aira's comfortable presence pervaded his mind and  
he relaxed slightly.  
  
"What's bridge, Mother?" Aira asked.  
  
Ranma smiled at his mother's pleased look, feeling Aira's shared  
happiness.  
  
"You don't know what bridge is?" Nodoka asked, outraged. "You must  
play!" She looked at him. "Tomorrow I'm going to have to take my  
daughter-in-law along and introduce her to my friends. We'll show her  
what bridge is about. As long as you don't mind, of course," she added  
hastily.  
  
"It's fine with me. We don't have anything we're in a rush to get  
done."  
  
Aira nodded. "I'd like to learn, and to meet your friends. Takahashi-  
san seemed friendly," *and hyper as a bunny on speed,* "and I'm sure the  
others will be nice, too."  
  
Nodoka still looked a bit worried, so he assured her, "Don't worry, I'll  
find something to do. Go to the park and get some practice in, maybe."  
  
"Go find a job, Daddy," Aira suggested. Nodoka was a kite on a windy  
day.  
  
"Maybe." He didn't want a job. She was right, though. He was going to  
have to get one eventually. But who would hire an apparent 16 year old?  
The pay would be low, certainly, for a highschool dropout. "College  
might be a better idea."  
  
His mother agreed. Enthusiastically. But, "Could you get into one?"  
she asked. "You're only sixteen." She looked doubtful suddenly. "When  
was the last time you went to school? Shouldn't you still be going?"  
  
Curses. Not aging did have its drawbacks. "It's been a couple of  
months. Oyaji pulled me out for the trip to China."  
  
"Then you should still be going. I'll look into arranging it, but it  
will probably be hard when the school year has already started," Nodoka  
said decisively. Then she smiled. "After tomorrow, of course."  
  
"Of course," Aira echoed. *Ranma the schoolboy? This should be  
interesting.*  
  
*Sweet dreams, wife, but you'll have to go, too.*  
  
"What grade were you in, Daughter?" Nodoka asked.  
  
*I hate you.* "Umm... I was in Ranma's grade."  
  
"Well, that's good. I'll make sure to get you into the same classes,"  
his mother said generously.  
  
*Hah.*  
  
*They don't teach magic here, do they?*  
  
*No.*  
  
*I hate you.* Bubbles of bright colors burst over their link, showing  
the terrible malice Aira held for him.  
  
He sent back a few images of his own and smiled when her face turned  
scarlet. *Betcha think it's funny now, don't ya?*  
  
*You better be ready to deliver later on,* was her reply. Aira's  
expression indicated that it wasn't going to be something he had a say  
in.  
  
Nodoka coughed, and they both turned to her in surprise. "Thinking  
naughty thoughts, were you?" They revealed themselves to be red-skinned  
aliens in disguise, the masks coming off. She sailed higher.  
  
"I'll call Takahashi-san and let her know you'll be coming tomorrow,"  
Ranma's mother said. She stood up and walked to the doorway, but before  
she stepped through, she warned them. "I'll be back in a minute."  
  
"We really gotta stop doing that," Ranma said after a minute.  
  
Aira scooted closer and leaned against him once more. This time she  
held his arm to her chest and he could feel that she really had meant  
what she said. "Why? Is there something wrong with this?" she asked.  
Her face was a portrait of little-girl innocence, spoiled princesses  
having never existed.  
  
"Well, no..."  
  
"Good."  
  
Nodoka came back into the room, holding a portable phone to one ear.  
"Channel 12, you said?" she asked whoever she was speaking to, picking  
up the remote in her free hand and turning on the television. A few  
button presses later and a soap commercial turned into a live feed of  
events in Nerima.  
  
On the screen a ten-foot tall monster was tearing into the crowd,  
grabbing everybody it could get its hands on and ripping them apart by  
the limbs. Some people were fed into its massive, grinning maw of fangs  
piece by torn piece. Others were shoved in whole, their screams lasting  
until and sometimes past the first few bites.  
  
A rabid reporter's exultant voice loudly declared how the monster had  
suddenly appeared out of nowhere before attacking all those innocent  
victims. The reporter and cameraman followed it at a slight but  
apparently safe distance as it ran after the fleeing people.  
  
Ranma and Aira ran out the door and house, ignoring Nodoka's yelling  
after them, and headed for the nearest train to Nerima.  
  
#####  
  
End Chapter Two. 


	4. Chapter Three

Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Contact belongs to Carl Sagan. The  
Adventures of Pip and Flinx belong to Alan Dean Foster. The  
Deathstalker series belongs to Simon R. Green. Mahou Senshi Riui (Louie  
the Rune Soldier) licensed by ADV.  
  
Back on Earth: Chapter Three  
By Thermopyle (thermopyle@tds.net)  
http://thermopye.anifics.com  
  
Stuff like *words* is telepathy.  
  
#####  
  
[Present]  
  
Ranma jumped across the rooftops, Aira held tightly in his arms, and  
followed her directions to Nerima. The trains moving in that direction  
had been stopped because of the emergency, so they had to run the  
distance.  
  
*Slow down,* Aira told him. *You need to be ready to fight when we get  
there.*  
  
He slowed slightly, but not much, and she kept silent.  
  
  
Ranma set Aira down at the edge of the building, and they stared at the  
piles of flesh and gore that were strewn about the street below. The  
alien, one of Grendel's Sleepers, was squatting in front of a bloody  
heap, eating the remains. The acidic drool that leaked from its mouth  
dissolved the pavement and streams of greenish smoke rose from around  
the creature.  
  
Though the news had shown a number of cops on the scene shooting at the  
Grendel, there were no marks on its silicon hide. Neither were the  
police still present; all that remained were a few mangled cars, one of  
the sirens still whooping though the sheet metal of the body had been  
ripped apart like confetti.  
  
*It's not hurting anybody. Maybe we should just go home,* Ranma  
suggested. It was true. There wasn't anybody even close to the thing,  
now.  
  
"And if it wanders over to Juuban?"  
  
"Okay, okay." She would bring that up.  
  
"What is it doing here, anyway? There shouldn't be any of them on this  
planet. You said the humans here haven't even gotten past the moon  
yet."  
  
"Dunno. Maybe it followed us."  
  
"If it did...."  
  
"Yeah." If that thing could, so might the Recreated. And the Recreated  
could snuff out the life on this planet easier than he could stomp an  
ant. Them included.  
  
Ranma sighed, then dropped over the edge of the building. He hated  
these things. They quit when they died, and not a second before. If he  
ripped the arms and legs off, it would just try to impale him through  
the neck with one of its oversized fangs. He'd fought armies of  
Grendels before and they were all like that.  
  
But he'd never tried it with his Maze-given abilities so limited. His  
strength and speed were now merely human, and completely dwarfed by the  
alien's. Only his link with Aira was abnormal for somebody with the  
amount of training he had.  
  
When his feet touched the ground, it looked up with its red, malicious  
eyes, and snarled at him. From a crouching position thirty feet away,  
it was on him instantly, clawed hands reaching for his neck, maw opening  
to bite down on his head.  
  
Ranma hit it in the mouth with a focused ki blast, hoping to blow its  
head off, and it staggered back, stunned but not injured. A string of  
its saliva stuck to Ranma's shirt and started to eat through. He  
ignored the acid and rushed forward to attack.  
  
A quick swipe from the alien cut through the bicep of his left arm,  
leaving it hanging useless, so he slammed his right fist into its  
diamond-hard throat. It grinned and he yanked his hand back before the  
creature could trap him between its jaw and chest.  
  
It blurred forward and he retreated, barely evading its attacks, unable  
to make a counterstrike. Then one of its feet stomped on his leg,  
snapping it completely below the knee, and it grabbed him by the head.  
  
With a wet crunch, its wrist shattered. Ranma kicked the alien in the  
chest to get away and staggered back. It continued to be pulverized by  
an invisible steamroller, sections of its body compressing, the bones  
breaking audibly. It roared in rage, and Ranma retreated quickly,  
hopping backwards as fast as he could.  
  
Just like his strength, Aira's tricks wouldn't be enough. Not at such a  
low level. Not without being able to crush it completely. *We need to  
get out of here,* he told her. *Now.*  
  
He felt her agreement and then the Grendel was picked up and thrown into  
a building across the street. Aira landed on the ground beside him,  
using the last of her mental abilities to soften the impact, and they  
ran.  
  
But the Grendel didn't follow.  
  
  
Aira ripped another piece of his shirt off and bound it around his arm  
to slow the bleeding. It would heal on its own, but slowly. So would  
his leg, though that would take longer. He'd had a lot of broken bones  
since this started. "Where did it go?" she asked.  
  
Ranma shrugged awkwardly. "Where'd it come from?" Nobody knew. It'd  
just appeared out of nowhere.  
  
Their fight had been caught on a camera that had still been  
transmitting, though the news crew had already been killed. The Grendel  
hadn't come back out of the building, nor had it been spotted elsewhere.  
Police were cautiously cleaning up the mess the alien had left.  
Identifying the partial corpses was probably going to be tricky.  
  
It always was. Even in the other universe, where DNA matching was  
commonplace and most people's was recorded. Separating different lumps  
of bloody flesh into the appropriate piles was a job nobody wanted to  
do.  
  
"Your mom probably saw us."  
  
"Yeah. She's gonna want an explanation." Tell her it was a pirate  
searching for Aira, maybe....  
  
*That's not nice.* She thought it was funny, though. *We'd better get  
going.*  
  
He stood and she quickly moved to help him stand, taking half of his  
weight. Then they hobbled towards the train back to Juuban.  
  
  
His mother was waiting for them with the front door open when they  
arrived. She was not smiling. "That was not a pirate."  
  
"Er," he said.  
  
"Where's the bathroom?" Aira asked. "He's a bit bloody and needs to be  
washed off."  
  
Nodoka frowned and looked at his broken leg, which had been dragging  
along the sidewalk, and his left arm, which was limp and dangling. "I  
think he needs to go to the hospital."  
  
"Just let Aira wrap my arm up and give me a crutch, and I'll be fine,"  
he said. "This has happened before."  
  
*Not in a while, though,* Aira sent.  
  
*Yeah. Still, it should only take a few days to fix.*  
  
Nodoka sighed, then stepped out of the doorway, letting them in. Her  
back was stiff as she led them to the furo, where they hoped the blood  
was least likely to stain.  
  
*She ain't happy about this, is she?*  
  
*Probably not. Don't worry, I'll handle it,* was Aira's response.  
  
He nodded slightly, knowing she'd sense his agreement. *If it comes  
back, neither of us can do anything about it. Are you sure you couldn't  
sense anything from the Grendel?* For it to just disappear was...weird.  
Usually they just kept killing and eating people until destroyed.  
Almost nothing could destroy them.  
  
*Yes. I depleted myself at the end, so my awareness of it just  
disappeared.*  
  
The floor of the furo was tiled, which was perfect--a surface that could  
be easily be cleaned. Aira helped Ranma to sit at the bench, then  
accepted the gauze bandages that Nodoka offered her. She quickly set  
about removing the shirt wrapping and wiping down the wound. Then she  
used the gauze to reapply the pressure, though it wasn't really needed  
anymore. The blood had stopped already, clotting completed and the  
healing had started. But the bandages would hide how quickly it was  
happening. It didn't even hurt much.  
  
For the leg, she snapped in half a bokken they had picked up on the way  
home. Then she knelt in front of him. "Are you ready?"  
  
Ranma nodded, and she cut off the silk cloth. It stuck, so she ripped  
it free, and he whined slightly. A chunk of bone was jutted out from  
underneath the skin, the splintered edge of it clean and white. The  
rest of his leg was covered in dark, crusty red where the blood was  
already dried. More of it leaked out of the newly irritated puncture.  
  
He noticed that his mom looked rather horrified, and then Aira yanked  
his leg back into the correct position. Ranma sucked air in through his  
clenched teeth, slowly. That hurt.  
  
One half of the broken bokken was placed on each side of his leg. All  
three were tied together with more of the gauze. In just a few days the  
leg would be fully healed, the bone regrown perfectly despite the sloppy  
fix. One of the Maze's little bonuses. Hopefully by then his other  
abilities would be reappearing. If not, there wasn't going to be a  
rematch with that Sleeper for a while.  
  
The Grendel would recover much, much faster than he would.  
  
Ranma looked over at his mom, who was staring at the 'fixed' leg, her  
face white. *Got any ideas?* he asked Aira.  
  
*Yeah.* Aira stood carefully, making sure not to bump against his  
injured limb, then settled herself down on his lap, her legs to either  
side of him. Then shifted her body, scraping against him deliberately,  
and pushed his uninjured hand against her right tit. She sucked on his  
lip, hard. *This will cheer her right up.*  
  
*Hey, wait a minute....* He glanced towards Nodoka nervously and  
noticed that she'd already left. Then Aira started cutting off the  
remainders of his clothes.  
  
  
*I told you,* Aira said, when they found his mother in the kitchen,  
humming happily as she prepared dinner. His wife's face was still  
flushed from exertion and he could feel that she was still horny. His  
mom looked just as excited, in that weird way of hers. He hoped she  
hadn't been peeking.  
  
*I can't believe you did that,* was his response.  
  
*I bet you she tries to get details when we go to Takahashi-san's  
tomorrow.*  
  
*Don't go there.* That was so wrong.  
  
Aira just smiled at him and then helped him to a seat. Then she went to  
help his mother make their supper.  
  
  
"So," Mom asked, "what was that thing you fought?"  
  
Ranma chewed slowly. *She's asking you.*  
  
*No, she's asking you, oh manly husband of mine. Fess up.*  
  
"Er," he said again.  
  
Nodoka looked at him expectantly.  
  
He sighed. "It's a genetically engineered killer designed by an alien  
race that nobody's ever seen. We killed a bunch in a different  
universe, where I spent the past four years with Aira. How it got here,  
I dunno."  
  
His mother's eyes went wide. "It's a space pirate? Your father never  
had to fight any of those...."  
  
Right.  
  
  
[Past]  
  
Ranma gasped in a lungful of air, fighting a heavy weight that pushed  
down on his chest, trying to suffocate him. He inhaled a mouthful of  
damp hair. There was a naked redhead on his chest. He froze.  
  
The naked redhead stirred slightly, rubbing her very naked body up  
against his. Two soft lumps dragged across his torso, and his hands  
were filled with slick, wet handfuls of...something naked.  
  
"Mm, Louie," she mumbled drowsily, and opened her blue eyes to gaze into  
his.  
  
Ranma let go, quickly, and she jumped off of him and ten feet away,  
hands and arms flying everywhere to cover herself, and failing. He  
looked away.  
  
"Who are you?" she demanded.  
  
"Ranma Saotome. Who are you?" And why was she naked?  
  
"Oh, I'm Aira. Nice to meet you." She hesitated. "Why am I naked?"  
  
"Dunno. I just woke up." Ranma frowned, then took his gi top off and  
tossed it in the girl's direction. "Here."  
  
He saw a brief glimpse of her uncovered, wet body out of the corner of  
his eye, and quickly turned a bit more away. Didn't want to get caught.  
He was pretty sure she'd seen him looking, though.  
  
"Uh, okay. You can look now," she said. Yep, definitely spotted.  
  
The shirt came down to about mid-thigh on her, since he was taller than  
Aira. It still didn't cover that much, especially from this angle, with  
his head lower than her body.  
  
"Can you stand up? Please?"  
  
"Er, right." Ranma stood quickly. The girl was starting to sound  
annoyed. Where did she come from, anyway?  
  
"How did I get here?" she asked. "I was helping Louie with a spell,  
then I woke up here." She looked around, and he did, too.  
  
They were in some weird tunnel that looked kind of like the inside of a  
snail shell. Except the shell was changing colors, and the walls hummed  
and vibrated with energy. So did the floor underneath them, which  
alternated quickly between hot and cold, burning and freezing his bare  
feet in turn.  
  
"I was sparring with my old man and some panda attacked me. I fell in a  
pool, then I woke up here." The colors had an odd pattern and flashed  
quickly... He shook his head to banish the dizziness. "This place is  
strange."  
  
"A panda?" Aira looked around some more, too, and he noticed that she  
was squinting. "You don't see my glasses around anywhere, do you?" She  
bent slightly to look directly at the ground, and the gi top opened  
slightly.  
  
"Um, no. Don't see 'em." The floor was spinning, only not, and felt  
like it was being sucked out from under his toes like sand at the watery  
edge of a beach. The tunnel curved in both directions, so he couldn't  
see far either way. His skull started throbbing to the pulse of the  
lights.  
  
"Do you feel anything odd?"  
  
Ranma looked at Aira to see the girl pressing her palm against her  
forehead. "You, too?"  
  
She nodded, her eyes still clenched mostly shut, and peered around them.  
"There's some weird magic in this place. I think we should try walking.  
One way or the other."  
  
Magic? "That way?" Ranma pointed left.  
  
"Sure."  
  
They headed left, and Ranma tried to not bump into the edges of the  
tunnel, which seemed to keep moving. Aira was about as unsuccessful,  
even though she couldn't see as well.  
  
  
They walked beside each other, carefully navigating between the hypnotic  
walls. Ranma's pants restrained him painfully as he tried to ignore the  
thoughts that were being hammered into his brain. He'd been around  
pretty girls before, but not like this. Not with visions so real he  
could feel them brushing against him, images of Aira removing his gi and  
spreading her legs, crying out happily as he plunged himself into her  
over and over again, her tits bouncing with each impact until he grabbed  
them for more than steadiness....  
  
He shoved her away, towards the other side of the tunnel, and staggered  
to the side, grabbing at his head. His imagination wasn't that good.  
He smashed his face into the wall and the bombardment of pictures  
ceased.  
  
When he turned towards Aira, he could see her hands were at her temples.  
Her face was a bit more pink than it had been earlier. "That...wasn't  
us," she said. "Maybe we should walk faster."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
  
Ranma's arms and legs burned with fatigue and his heart thudded against  
the close confines of his ribcage. His breath was rapid, fast enough to  
let him run full-out at thirty miles an hour. He was walking at a  
steady pace, yet every muscle burned with exhaustion, every bone ached  
of heavy impact and bruising. Each step was a challenge beating him  
down mercilessly. He'd never felt so weak, so aware of the limitations  
of his humanity.  
  
Aira kept up beside him, also having trouble. He was far stronger than  
she was--he had to be--yet she was still keeping up. Every step he  
took, she matched. He stared at her legs, knowing they weren't capable  
of pushing with the force his were having to. Her knees should be  
snapping back, her legs collapsing under the pressure, but they didn't.  
They strained, but she kept up.  
  
Somehow he knew that she wasn't fighting for each step, but instead was  
fighting to be able to make herself step forward. For her, the weight  
of mountains was all collapsing on her mind, not her body. Thousands of  
thoughts of worthlessness, hate, rejection, and failure, thousands of  
distractions that were trying to demolish her will, they all smashed  
into her over and over again.  
  
And he had no idea how he knew that. All he could do was struggle to go  
at even the slow pace Aira was keeping.  
  
This tunnel was pissing him off.  
  
  
Aira stumbled and dropped to her knees, chest shaking as she tried to  
cry. Ranma wasn't much better off. He struggled through the wall of  
granite air towards her. She was only a few steps away, but each bit  
closer only made movement more difficult.  
  
He fell forward when his ankle collapsed. The instant his hand touched  
her shoulder the pressure disappeared. The dizziness subsided, the  
images stopped, and he felt normal again.  
  
The tunnel around them disappeared, replaced by frozen steel walls that  
radiated coldness from bladelike protrusions. The chill traveled up  
through his feet, his legs dipped in ice to the knees, and his bare  
chest was assaulted by a wave of icy air. Aira shivered beside him,  
just as exposed as he was. The images of sex were no more, so he held  
her close to him so that they could share in each other's warmth, and  
they moved forward again.  
  
This time there was more than one path, and the road they walked  
branched off on both sides repeatedly. Eventually they came to a dead  
end, where they could no longer go straight but instead had to choose  
left or right.  
  
"Let's go left," Aira said. "If we always turn the same direction, we  
should get out of here eventually."  
  
Ranma nodded, and they resumed walking.  
  
There were again passages on each side, and every time he passed one,  
he'd look down it, to see if there was anything more than a twisting  
tunnel of tortured steel walls. Instead, he'd see pictures of Aira in  
other places. She was talking to a tall guy with blue hair, or waving  
around a wooden stick, or studying at a desk piled upon with books....  
  
"Quit looking," she said sharply. "It's more of this place's tricks.  
You're seeing me, right?"  
  
"Yeah." Now she was wearing some tight purple thing.  
  
"I'm seeing you, learning martial arts, going to some weird school, and  
fighting with your father or somebody. It's showing us each other's  
past. So don't look."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because it could start showing us other stuff. There's no way to tell.  
Just ignore it."  
  
He frowned. It wasn't quite that easy.  
  
  
Ranma remembered fighting with his father, then getting knocked into the  
spring by a panda. Then he saw himself swimming to China, his heavy  
pack a lead sinker trying to drag him down. He remembered waiting for  
that kid from highschool, then winning the bread every day, then  
training with his father, transferring between schools, and training  
some more. It's not real! When he saw himself being thrown in the pit  
of cats, their glowing eyes shining with malice as they clawed at his  
younger form, he tried to fight the images off, to return to the  
maddening maze.  
  
And he shrieked as the cats became real and the pain tangible, ripping  
into him, scraping through his gangrenous mind with rusted spikes. It's  
not real! His skin ripped, stretched, and tore free, then blood oozed  
through his damaged muscles, the cats' rough tongues sandpaper on a  
salted wound as they devoured him piece by twitching piece.  
  
"It's not real!"  
  
Ranma's skull shattered and the cats, and everything else, fled into the  
darkness.  
  
  
Pandas did somersaults on his head, their weight making bits of brain  
spurt out his ears and nose from the pressure. It hurt.  
  
Ranma opened his eyes and saw Aira staring down at him.  
  
"Hey," he said. A thousand marching bands stomped in unison, drums  
pounding joyously. She had a piece of cloth pressed firmly against his  
forehead. Why?  
  
"Are you sane now?" she asked.  
  
"I think so." The last thing he remembered...best not to think about  
it. Stupid Pops--it was his fault. "Why's my face hurt?"  
  
"I smashed it against one of the walls."  
  
"Oh."  
  
He sat up slowly and noticed a flat section of their metal surroundings  
had a blot of blood on it. She was stronger than he'd thought. He  
stood, and Aira did the same. Ranma looked the other way as she used  
the now-bloody dogi belt to retie her top closed.  
  
When he touched his forehead he felt where the blood had come from, and  
quickly pulled his hand away. At least it wasn't bad enough to get in  
his eyes. Or maybe it was, and Aira had already slowed it by the  
applied force.  
  
"It was bleeding pretty badly," she said.  
  
Ranma turned and saw how much of the belt was stained red. "I guess.  
You okay?"  
  
Aira nodded, and they resumed their maze traveling.  
  
  
His headache was gone, and he felt like he could rip a god apart with  
his bare hands. One-handed, even, and just using a pinky. He felt  
good.  
  
"You feel that?" Ranma asked. Aira looked like she had discovered  
herself to be a genius, the world's problems cowering before the  
solution that only she knew. He'd seen the look before on his father's  
face.  
  
"Yes. Don't be fooled. It's another trick."  
  
"Right."  
  
  
The tunnel opened up into a wide, circular chamber. In the center was a  
glowing pillar of white that grew to chest-height from the floor.  
Placed on top was a small baby.  
  
"What the hell?" he whispered. The walls flashed a rainbow of colors at  
him, the protrusions absent in this place. Aira stepped forward and he  
followed. The infant's chest filled and emptied silently as they  
approached. "What's it doing here?"  
  
"The Darkvoid Device is sleeping, just as it has for the past thousand  
years. Who are you?" a rough voice growled from behind them.  
  
#####  
  
To be continued. 


End file.
